


three steps closer

by kathillards



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Charge
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-05-12 18:36:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5676388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathillards/pseuds/kathillards
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five kisses in one day is a lot for anyone, but when they're from two different boys, well, things start to get complicated. Shelby blames the mistletoe, but that can't solve all her problems. —- ChaseShelby, TylerShelby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	three steps closer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [letterfromathief (sentbyfools)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=letterfromathief+%28sentbyfools%29).



> i will definitely get caught up on christmas presents this month...hopefully. dedicated to amber for being amazing and giving me the prompt of repeated mistletoe kisses.
> 
> this is chase/shelby just fyi. i know i write a lot of tyler/shelby but this one is...not quite that.

If she didn't know better, she'd say it was planned.

Chase beams down at her, irrepressibly smug as ever. She gets the urge to knock his beanie off his head, just to make him a little less tall. The mistletoe between them swings cheerfully from the arch of the doorway, too high for her to reach up and strangle it.

Sometimes, she hates being so short.

"You know, Shelby, I'd almost believe you were doing this on purpose," Chase says nonchalantly, completely stealing her thoughts as she gapes at him in outrage, "seeing as this is, in fact, our third time under the mistletoe today..."

Shelby punches him in the arm before he can finish the thought and he mock-winces in pain. "You're an asshole."

"And yet, here we stand," Chase grins, leaning down so fast she almost thinks he's just going to kiss her right there. But of course, Chase loves making everything a production, so he doesn't, letting his lips hover inches from hers. "As flattered as I am - "

"If you finish that sentence, I will slap you," she warns him. "Again."

Chase makes a face. "You make this so much more violent than it has to be." She punches him again, this time with less force, and he laughs, rubbing his arm. "You don't have to be so rude."

"Around you?" Shelby snorts, but she curls her fingers into his shirt to yank him forward anyway. "Of course I do."

She'd been sleep-deprived that morning during their first kiss, so much so that she remembered almost nothing aside from him tasting like coffee and how little coffee she'd had in comparison (none, at that point, which was the problem). The second kiss, she'd been infuriated with him forgetting her table's order and it hadn't exactly ended well.

This time, though, Chase manages to meet her halfway, the collision messy but evening out into a real kiss. She refuses to open her mouth, and he doesn't press, although his hands do find her waist and pull her close.

She moves to pull away — surely, thirty seconds is enough for a stupid mistletoe kiss — but he makes a noise in the back of his mouth that slows her, draws her back in, one of his hands coming up to cradle her face. His palm is warm, damp with sweat from manning the grill, but not entirely unpleasant.

It takes her a moment to realize it's been probably too long for a _mistletoe kiss_.

"Why did you do that?" she asks, her voice a little lost in her breathlessness when they part. Chase looks only half as dazed as she feels, which is more annoying than she expected it to be, because he just smirks and drops his hands.

"Do what?" he asks innocently, though he doesn't step away from her immediately. The kitchen suddenly feels too crowded, even though they're the only two in there at the moment.

"Do – " Shelby splutters, unsure how he missed the fact that he kissed her again, even though she had been drawing away. "You pulled me back in!"

Chase raises an eyebrow. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he says easily, sidestepping her and walking backwards into the cafe proper. "Don't forget, you're on Ivan's tables today, he had to reschedule."

Shelby stares after him, unable to find words as he wanders away from her, whistling to himself. The mistletoe above her swings happily away, its red and gold ribbon sparkling.

-:-

There's a girl standing under the mistletoe, eyeing Chase hopefully. Shelby wouldn't have noticed, except, well, she was on her break and she was at the table right by the doorway to the cafe, and honestly, it's not like she's paying attention.

But Chase is walking right towards the girl, and she almost wants to stop him. He has his headphones in, distracted from the world, off to run an errand or something –

"Chase!"

It takes her a moment to realize that was her own voice.

He takes his headphones out and looks at her curiously, not five feet away from her table and the mistletoe under the doorway. Panic sets in for a moment; she has no plan of what to say. The girl's brow furrows, lips twisting in a pout.

"Yes, Shelby?" Chase asks slowly, startling her from trying to think of a good subject of conversation. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I just... I wanted to make sure you were going to the right... place," she says awkwardly, gesturing at the list of things to get for the café in his hands.

Chase looks at it, then at her. His gaze never once darts to the girl, who has since been moved from the doorway by customers jostling her out of the way. "The right... grocery store?" he asks carefully.

"Uh, yup," Shelby says, plastering on a smile. "Just so you don't... forget. And get lost."

"Your confidence in me is inspiring," Chase chuckles, adjusting his cap. "Not to worry, I can make my way to the store and back in one piece."

"We'll see," she shoots back, and he winks at her before heading out of the cafe, completely bypassing the girl who was waiting for him. Shelby stares down at her drink, wondering what the hell just happened.

-:-

Riley sits down across from her during his break, before Chase has returned from the store, and he probably knows something's off because she's playing Candy Crush more aggressively than normal, but he wisely doesn't say anything until she sighs and drops her phone on the table with a loud clatter.

"Do you... wanna talk about it?" he asks, eyeing her warily over his soda, as if she might explode at him.

Shelby frowns. "I don't know," she admits. Riley sighs, setting aside the book he'd been attempting to read as she struggles with her words. "It's Chase. I think."

"Oh, you mean, because he keeps kissing you?" Riley asks matter-of-factly. Shelby's frown deepens and he shrugs. "I mean, it was pretty obvious.”

“What was?” she demands, her head spinning. The first kiss and the second swim through her mind in flashes of memory, his lips on hers, warm and teasing and maybe a little too sloppy, but – well –

"...That he was using the mistletoe as an excuse to kiss you?" Riley prompts, and she blinks at him, startled. He shakes his head, picking up his book again. "Well, you might wanna ask him about it when he comes back."

Shelby stares after him as he walks away, presumably to go read in a place where he won't be bothered by her love life issues. Not that this is a love life issue. It's more of a... kissing issue.

She's in so much trouble.

-:-

Chase comes back within the hour, arms full of grocery bags, but Shelby makes certain not to be anywhere in the near vicinity of the cafe when he does. She'd traded her shift with Koda and headed to the base for some peace and quiet. Kendall usually lets her stay there and help as long as she doesn't disturb anything, and Shelby is pretty good at not disturbing anything.

This time, though, Kendall keeps looking at her. It's strange. She doesn't quite know what to do about it, until the scrutiny gets too much, and she sighs.

" _What?"_

"Nothing," Kendall says, looking back at her work. "Is... Chase back with the groceries?"

If she didn't know better – and she definitely did, because it was a ridiculous notion – she'd say it was planned. The mistletoe, the girl, the casual mentions of Chase's name...

"I don't know, I traded shifts," she says, keeping her voice cool and calm. At least, she hopes she's keeping it cool and calm. Judging from the look on Kendall's face, she's not quite succeeding.

"Right," Kendall says slowly, circling her lab table. "Why is that, exactly? I know it's not your dream job, but you usually have a good reason to trade shifts."

Shelby bites her lip. Somehow, saying ' _I didn't want to have to see Chase'_ doesn't seem like a reason that would fly with Kendall.

"I wasn't feeling well," she lies. Kendall raises an eyebrow. Before Shelby can add anything defensively, Tyler chooses that moment to slide down into the base.

"Hi," he greets cheerfully, tossing his energem at the charging station. Kendall's eyes widen – regardless of how aloof she pretended to be, Shelby knows Kendall is aware of... whatever's going on between her and Tyler. Although even she doesn't know quite what that is.

It's like she has something to feel guilty about, looking at Tyler's bright smile as he heads over towards the two of them, but that's ridiculous. The two of them aren't anything. Could have been something, maybe, but aren't.

"Am I interrupting something?" Tyler asks, brow furrowed, glancing between the two of them.

Kendall shakes her head and hastily moves so she's not standing in the middle of Tyler and Shelby. "Nope, just working on a new charger."

Shelby musters a smile at Tyler as Kendall hurries away to the other end of the lab, leaving them alone.

-:-

It bothers her, just a bit, how little she's thought of Tyler since the day – and the kisses – started. Of course, it isn't entirely her fault; he had the day off so he's been out and about, and she's been at the cafe with Chase. And Chase -- has proved thoroughly and sufficiently distracting.

It's also not her fault that she was on the road with Tyler for weeks and no matter what happened, _nothing_ happened. And here they were, back at the beginning, with his smile and her heartbeat faintly fluttering, and nothing happening, all over again.

"Is everything okay?" he asks, following behind her as she walks out into the parking lot of the museum, her fingers fiddling with the bracelets on her wrist. With Tyler inside, and Kendall's knowing looks, the base had suddenly become suffocating.

"Yeah, of course, everything's great," she says. One of her bracelets snaps, beads clattering over the sidewalk. Tyler looks at her in concern. She forces more words out. "Have you talked to Chase today?"

He looks away for only a moment, but it's long enough for her to know he's talked to _someone_. "Uh, no. Should I have? Did something happen?"

"No," she says, but the word is heavy with the lie churning in her stomach. "Maybe?"

"Shelby," Tyler says with a little laugh, stepping closer to her. "We're friends, right? You can talk to me."

"I can?" she asks and he nods, earnest as always. "Even if it's about kissing other boys?"

That stops him cold. "Um. What?"

"You said we were friends, isn't that what friends talk about?" she asks, forcing her hand away from the bracelets at her wrist, lest she break another one. Tyler's brow is furrowed, his gaze intense, and her insides are anxious.

"Is this about Chase?" he asks suddenly, startling her concentration. When she meets his eye again, he's smiling ruefully. "Uh, Ivan kinda filled me in. He's a bit of a gossip."

"Apparently so is everyone," Shelby sighs, scuffing the pavement with her shoe, her stomach rolling with nerves. "We don't have to talk about this – "

"No," Tyler says quickly, catching her hand before she can leave. "We should. I mean, I – I don't know. Do you like him?"

_I like you_ , she wants to scream, but the words don't feel quite as true as they used to. "I don't know. Maybe."

Tyler hasn't let go of her hand. Her palm feels clammy, mostly on her side. "Are you worried about... me?"

"You?" she echoes, wishing she could step back, but her feet seem stuck to the ground. "Do I have something to worry about?"

"No," he says quickly. That doesn't feel true either. A shower of fake snow falls down on them from the roof of the museum and she looks up to glower in the general direction of whoever threw it. There's a machine sitting on top, spraying the white powder all over the grounds of the museum.

"Is this necessary?" Tyler asks, laughing a little as he follows her gaze to the machine.

"It never snows in California," Shelby says with a shrug. The snow is kind of nice, soft and not cold at all. It lands in her hair, in Tyler's, on their bare arms, flecking them with spots of white. "So I guess so."

Her hand is still in his. Tyler seems to realize it at the same time she does, because he looks down, and then up, and then he smiles and reaches out to brush fake snowflakes from her hair.

She's not sure who kisses who first, but she thinks she might be more culpable than she wants to be. He kisses her much more slowly than Chase did, sweet and unsure, gentler and not quite as deep. 

And when she pulls back, he lets her. She wonders if that feeling inside her chest is wishing that he had drawn her back in for another kiss like Chase did, or relief that he didn't. She's not sure which feeling she would prefer.

Tyler notices Chase standing at the doorway to the museum before she does. Her heart flips and lands with a thump. Chase is too far away to call out to, but not far enough away that she doubts he's seen them -- he's looking right at them.

For a moment, she freezes, no idea what to do. Tyler drops her hand, moves back a respectable distance. She's not sure why; he has nothing to feel guilty about, surely. Chase manages what she thinks is a smile, then shoves his hands into his pockets and spins on his heel, heading back into the museum.

She doesn't know why he came outside in the first place. The fake snow continues to fall over her and Tyler.

-:-

He speaks first when she finds him later in the base, the two of them alone except for the hum of energy from Kendall's latest contraption. "So... you and Tyler."

"Don't."

Chase raises his eyebrows, looking surprised. "Am I not supposed to talk about it?"

Shelby makes a face at him. "It's your fault, you know."

"I know you like to blame everything on me, but I'm pretty sure you and Tyler swapping spit is not quite something you can give me credit for," Chase says, half a grin playing on his face.

"Sure I can," she huffs. "It's your fault because he only kissed me because we were talking about me kissing you."

The words come out in a rush, and he stops whatever retort he had on the tip of his tongue to blink at her in astonishment.

"...Why were you talking about that?"

Shelby throws her hands in the air, annoyed. "Because you've done it three times today, and that's not even counting last week!"

" _I've_ done it three times today?" Chase asks incredulously, but his grin is widening. "I have a lot of talents, Shelby, but the ability to dictate who stands with me under mistletoe is not one of them."

She jabs a finger at his chest. "Riley said you were doing it on purpose."

He curls a hand around her wrist, but he doesn't pull it away from him. "Riley says a lot of things. Most of them are dumb."

"Why did you leave earlier, when you saw me and Tyler kissing?" she asks, hyper-aware of how much closer she is now that he's holding her hand, her fingers dropping and splaying over his chest properly.

"Did you want me to come interrupt?" Chase asks, amused. "I thought I'd give you two some privacy."

Her head is a jumble of questions and answers and desires. "So... you're okay with it?"

He hesitates. "Okay with what?"

"Me and Tyler," she edges, thinking back to Tyler's response to the inverted question. _If it's something you want. If he makes you happy._

Chase hesitates for an even longer moment. "Do you... want me to be okay with it?"

"That's not a yes," she points out.

"No," he agrees, staring down at her, one corner of his lips quirked in a half-smile. The air between them crackles with something, tension and desire. "It's not."

Somebody clears their throat behind her. Shelby whirls, her hand dropping from Chase's grip, to see Kendall standing there, looking apologetically at them.

"Sorry," she says, walking past them towards her newest device. "I just really need to check on this to make sure it doesn't explode or something."

"No worries," Chase says easily, sliding behind Shelby and backing up towards the exit. "I was just leaving."

"You were?" Shelby asks, unable to mask the disappointment in her voice. He pauses and turns to look at her over his shoulder. Kendall politely focuses on her device, allowing them some semblance of privacy.

"If... you wanna come with me," Chase says carefully, looking almost nervous. "I was gonna go get coffee."

"Coffee," she repeats. She thinks she hears Kendall coughing, but she doesn't turn to look to see if she's stifling laughter or a snide comment. "Sure."

-:-

Naturally, given her luck, the coffee shop has mistletoe above the doorway. Thankfully, it also has a decent lack of customers, with most of them piling into the Starbucks across the street. Chase stops in front of the door and looks at her carefully.

"You can go in first," he offers, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Almost nervously.

"Oh, what, you don't want to make it four times in a day?" Shelby shoots at him, grinning, and feels him relax a little by her side. "What's the matter?"

He laughs, running a hand through his hair, but his expression contains much less of his usual carefree humor than it normally does. "Nothing, I just... I don't want you to feel like you have to kiss me. Again."

"And the last three times?" she prods.

Chase smirks at her. "I'm telling you, those were lucky accidents."

"Why don't I believe you?"

"You think I maneuvered you under the mistletoe just so I could kiss you?"

"I do," Shelby admits, stepping forward carefully. He doesn't move to join her, though he does raise an eyebrow at her. "And I think you brought me here to see if I would let you kiss me again."

Chase runs his tongue over his lips, doesn't meet her gaze when he asks, "Will you?" 

His voice has gone soft, unusually so. Shelby hesitates only a second before reaching out and grabbing his hand, pulling him across the space between them and into the doorway of the coffee shop with her.

"You're buying me coffee," she informs him. A grin crosses his face, cheek to cheek, as he nods and cups her face and leans in. He kisses sweetly, when she gives him the chance to, warm and pleasantly dizzying. When he pulls back, she searches in vain for something to say over the butterflies and the breathlessness, but he beats her to it.

"Did you stop me from kissing that girl in the cafe earlier today?" He sounds more amused than anything but she hits him in the arm anyway. "Just making sure!"

"Shut up and get in line," Shelby says, a smile hidden behind her exasperated sigh. Chase grins and salutes her, and steals one more kiss before moving out from underneath the mistletoe.


End file.
